Johannesburg, Aug 13: It's good for your country to have a coast — or at least lots of its population in close proximity to the sea — and not just for trips to the beach. Recent studies are confirming what many economists have long known: that geography matters. Size does, too. This may be especially relevant to Africa, helping explain why it is the world’s poorest continent and why the wealth gap between it and the rest of the planet is growing.

“More countries are land-locked (in Africa), with small populations, than in any other region,” says the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
“This impedes growth by making exports costly and limiting incentives for foreign direct investment,” it says. In its ‘03 human development report, the UNDP looks at economic growth rates by population size and geographical factors between 1980 and 1998.

Small countries are classified as those with fewer than 40m people in 1990 while those with three quarters of the population living more than 100 km (60 miles) from the coast are classified as inland — even if they have a coastline.
“Small and inland countries enjoyed much less economic success over the same period (than large or coastal countries),” the report says.
“The findings are particularly relevant for Africa, since 33 of the 55 countries counted as small and inland are on that continent,” it says. Economists going back to Adam Smith in the 18th century have argued that geography is a vital ingredient of economic success, and analysts have in recent years been closely examining its impact on development. Bureau Report